Has Massachusetts Left the Union

Rob Meltzer

Thursday

Jan 30, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2014 at 12:23 PM

Democratic leaders in Congress are scratching their heads and asking the age old question: what is wrong with Massachusetts? While the answer is “plenty,” the immediate question was raised by the act of our entire Congressional delegation voting against a bipartisan farm bill, three years in the writing, approved by both parties and the president, but apparently not good enough for Massachusetts. Now, granted, the farm bill cuts some money from food stamps, but the bill also included a number of goodies for Obama’s home-state agribusiness cronies from Illinois and some sweeteners for those who want to balance all the GMO grain with organic food programs and the like. Massachusetts still has a significant agricultural sector, and all the analysis indicates that the benefit to Massachusetts farmers, and the colleges and universities doing agricultural research, outweighs any costs to the state from filling a gap in food stamp cuts. So why vote against a bipartisan bill a few days after Obama got up in the chamber and accused the Republicans of being obstructionist? Scratch. Scratch.

The answer seems to be one of principle. Of course, since the bill was bipartisan and Obama will be supporting it, where is the principle? scratch. scratch.

But the real answer has to do with the continuing downward spiral of irrelevancy of the Massachusetts delegation. It simply doesn’t do anything. It has no power in the Republican House. So when it gets a chance to actually participate in something bipartisan, one would assume that they would rush to participate. One would think. scratch. scratch. Except that what we are really seeing here is pique. no one asked our delegations’ opinion, because our delegation doesn’t matter. We’re just an outlier. Its like being back in 1972. Vote for McGovern. Out to the wilderness. Except in the wilderness you have to grow food. In November, we need to throw these bums out. All of them. Scratch. scratch.

Democratic leaders in Congress are scratching their heads and asking the age old question: what is wrong with Massachusetts? While the answer is “plenty,” the immediate question was raised by the act of our entire Congressional delegation voting against a bipartisan farm bill, three years in the writing, approved by both parties and the president, but apparently not good enough for Massachusetts. Now, granted, the farm bill cuts some money from food stamps, but the bill also included a number of goodies for Obama’s home-state agribusiness cronies from Illinois and some sweeteners for those who want to balance all the GMO grain with organic food programs and the like. Massachusetts still has a significant agricultural sector, and all the analysis indicates that the benefit to Massachusetts farmers, and the colleges and universities doing agricultural research, outweighs any costs to the state from filling a gap in food stamp cuts. So why vote against a bipartisan bill a few days after Obama got up in the chamber and accused the Republicans of being obstructionist? Scratch. Scratch.

The answer seems to be one of principle. Of course, since the bill was bipartisan and Obama will be supporting it, where is the principle? scratch. scratch.

But the real answer has to do with the continuing downward spiral of irrelevancy of the Massachusetts delegation. It simply doesn’t do anything. It has no power in the Republican House. So when it gets a chance to actually participate in something bipartisan, one would assume that they would rush to participate. One would think. scratch. scratch. Except that what we are really seeing here is pique. no one asked our delegations’ opinion, because our delegation doesn’t matter. We’re just an outlier. Its like being back in 1972. Vote for McGovern. Out to the wilderness. Except in the wilderness you have to grow food. In November, we need to throw these bums out. All of them. Scratch. scratch.

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